Worst/Most Boring Book You've Ever Read

The worst thing that I ever read was when I read "you lose" when I was playing agianst my mother in TETRIS, and I had been practicing for weeks and I still lost...

StewieGriffin

12-25-2003 10:55 PM

quote:

Originally posted by TifariaFlowers For Algernon was good too. I read it when I was in the eighth grade or so, and I cried like a sissy at the end.

Same here.

Bismarck

12-25-2003 11:48 PM

Jeez, perhaps I am heartless. When I reached the end of Flowers for Algernon I felt like burning the book. "Oh and I hope that I can get smart again". LOL

Mega Dominus

12-26-2003 02:48 AM

A Separate Peace - Pure and utter prep school crap.

Harry Potter - Pure and utter magic school... see the similarities?

Volt

12-26-2003 10:49 AM

Little Women. Seriously, how is combing hair and flirting classical? I just dropped the book on the second to last chapter... each chapter was like rotting in hell for 1000 years as Sucubus claw my eyes out and Hades roasts me over a boiling pit of lava filled with giant mutant whales with razor sharp teeth and torpedo launchers...The Hobbit. Umm, it was just too boring. Honestly I never cared about Bimbo, err, Bilbo anyway...

Sharpshooter005

12-26-2003 01:03 PM

quote:

GREAT EXPECTATIONS was different. There was something new to hate on every page.

We're currently reading this in english class...wheee...fun...

Crystalline

12-26-2003 01:20 PM

The Old Man And The Sea.

I didn't see the point of sitting there reading a book about some old guy sitting in a dang boat. If I wanted that, I'd go to Deleware and head to the bay, plenty of that there. BOOOOOOOORING.

Harry Harrison, now THERE is an author for ya! <3

Cool_Vash

12-26-2003 01:40 PM

Winterflight

A Christian novel about the future where abortion and euthenasia is enforced on babies with defects and elderly people who reach age 75. I swear the Christian family acts insane and as though moving to another country that is somewhat a dictatorship or some other thing (I can't remember what the mother and father's problem with Brazil was) where the grandfather and son can live in peace is worse than staying in the US where the government will "thanotize" the grandfather and send the kid off to be used as spare parts for other people. Then there's the fact the thing completely drops a sub plot (the doctor). And then the horribly depressing ending, where the

spoiler (highlight to read):

The grandfather takes his grandson (the kid from before) on a fishing trip, and then that night while they're looking out on the water, starts walking with him into the water, then picks him up and commits murder-suicide

. Man I hate that ending.

Prons

12-26-2003 03:53 PM

Charolett's web - any pig that talks should be shot

Travis Bickle

02-15-2005 08:02 AM

The topic says it all: name the most worst and/or most boring book you've ever read and say why.

For myself, I just finished reading Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia." He dwindles on for 40 pages, lists all of the different rivers in Virginia, describes them in full detail, and then goes on and talks about the land, animals, and so on. Damn you, History 202 teacher!

Gummibear

02-15-2005 08:21 AM

quote:

Originally posted by Cerpin Taxt

For myself, I just finished reading Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia." He dwindles on for 40 pages, lists all of the different rivers in Virginia, describes them in full detail, and then goes on and talks about the land, animals, and so on. Damn you, History 202 teacher!

Wow I really can't think of anything that tops that. I find biographical books to be very boring ( unless written in a humorous vane or one that is written to entertain the reader).

Lady Tesser

02-15-2005 08:28 AM

'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'.

I fell asleep several times reading the FIRST chapter.

At the end, everyone dies (including the goat) and you wish you could, too.

My second choice would be anything by Hemingway. I started my paper on 'A Farewell to Arms' with "You'll be sorry to know that I did NOT commit suicide by slashing my wrists with the novel's pages ... "

If a book makes you so depressed you want to kill yourself, then it's going to be considered a classic. I think it's revenge from English teachers who wanted to be novelists.

Wazpy

02-15-2005 09:08 AM

The Wanning of the Middle Ages... if somebody would have sliced off my arms during that, I would have thanked them for waking me up.

Spooky

02-15-2005 11:55 AM

Wuthering Heights. I don't even think I made it through the first chapter. Funny though, the Cliff Notes got me a "B" on the exam

Oh, and the prolouge to The Princess Bride is pretty darn slow...the story is good, but Goldman likes to go on and on and on and on....

And pretty much any college text book, save for my English 1302 literary reader - at least THAT text book had a collection of well-written short stories!

Latah
Token

LillyRose

02-15-2005 12:17 PM

Oh yeah. Here we go.

Anything by Thomas Hardy. I read my reading assignments from Jude the Obscure when I needed to fall asleep at night.

Anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Enough with the (baseless) guilt already! Besides that, the man did not know when to leave well enough alone and end a sentance.

Anything by Ernest Hemmingway. Overly macho, horribly sexist, and boring all at the same time. Not a winning trifecta.

BabyGhia

02-15-2005 02:48 PM

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison. I know some people love this book. Ranted and raved about it when we read it in AP English my Senior year but I wasn't all that impressed with it. Neither was my mom or my dad, who tried to read. Both put the book down before they finished and wondered what my English teacher was thinking.

Other than that, I think I've blocked all the other books that I was forced to read. *shudders* I don't even want to go there.

BabyGhia

angelcakes

02-15-2005 03:01 PM

I'm gonna take some heat for this one but...

The worst book I've ever read has to be Lord of the Rings. I just can't stand the series. I tried watching the movies, I tried re-reading the books. I just can't find myself to like them. Now I want you guys to get me right, I'm not saying that the books aren't good, because they are...just to other people. As for me...mention LoTR's in a sentence...s'not a pretty sight

But of course there's also Cathrine Called Birdy...but I choose not to discuss that in mixed company

The Fallen Phoenix

02-15-2005 05:11 PM

quote:

Originally posted by angelcakes
I'm gonna take some heat for this one but...

The worst book I've ever read has to be Lord of the Rings. I just can't stand the series. I tried watching the movies, I tried re-reading the books. I just can't find myself to like them. Now I want you guys to get me right, I'm not saying that the books aren't good, because they are...just to other people. As for me...mention LoTR's in a sentence...s'not a pretty sight

But of course there's also Cathrine Called Birdy...but I choose not to discuss that in mixed company

Fair enough; Tolkien's style is not for everybody. To be honest, I did not fall in love with it the first time I read The Lord of the Rings; it did take me a while to fully appreciate it.

I'm not surprised to hear people mention Hawthorne (I'm perhaps more surprised no one has named The Scarlet Letter yet), though I certainly disagree and think that his works (The Scarlet Letter in particular) are rather compelling, but I recognize that I am in the minority.

Some of my least favorite books? I suppose most things written by Shakespeare, with a few notable exceptions (like Othello ): I've just never been a fan of his. I was not particularly keen on Death Comes for the Archbishop, though I expect to reread it one day, if only because I did recognize that...well, it wasn't terribly written by any means.

But worst book? In all honesty, it's hard to say...I've certainly read my share of really bad ones, but they do not really stick out in my mind (for obvious reasons). I'll have to entertain this question at a later time...

BabyGhia

02-15-2005 05:17 PM

quote:

Originally posted by The Fallen Phoenix
I'm not surprised to hear people mention Hawthorne (I'm perhaps more surprised no one has named The Scarlet Letter yet), though I certainly disagree and think that his works (The Scarlet Letter in particular) are rather compelling, but I recognize that I am in the minority.

I read The Scarlet Letter and I won't say it was my favorite book but I did find it rather interesting. Mind you, I could pick up the book tomorrow, start reading it and think I've gone insane. But it wasn't the worse book I've ever read. However, that's the only book I've ever read by Hawthorne.

BabyGhia

Sharpshooter005

02-15-2005 05:25 PM

quote:

My second choice would be anything by Hemingway. I started my paper on 'A Farewell to Arms' with "You'll be sorry to know that I did NOT commit suicide by slashing my wrists with the novel's pages ... "

I loathed this book.

Oddly enough, I liked "The sun also rises" though. Maybe I'm crazy.

quote:

Wuthering Heights. I don't even think I made it through the first chapter. Funny though, the Cliff Notes got me a "B" on the exam

We're reading that currently...frankly, I love it.

Maybe thats because the Heathcliff character just eventually becomes so COMPLETELY malevolent, that its just great.

But really, I keep expecting him to raise his fist into the air and begin screaming "CURSE YOU LINTON, WE SHALL MEET AGAIN!" before trying to construct a death ray. It's getting kind of over the top.

But in a good way, I like it at least.

Oh, yes. "Ethan Frome" made me wish the author weren't dead, simply so I could bludgeon them with a claw hammer. For extra fun, after reading it, try to find that analysis where EVERYTHING is turned into a sexual metaphore of some kind.

And I do mean EVERYTHING, when it said the trees were supposed to be phallic symbols, I couldn't help but think someone had run out of ideas.

I've also never liked Dickens. I remember empathizing with Scrooge more BEFORE his change of heart than after. And Great Expectations was just plodding.